How We decide on a topic of interest, spend a little time researching it, record a podcast, publish the notes

Why The chief benefit is the fostering as much understanding of this world, the only world, while we can and to hopefully prompt further thought and discussion

Introduce the topic: New Atheism

Topic overview

Since the religiously motivated terror attacks on America in 2001 subsequently known as '9/11', a wave of animosity towards structured religions in general and Islamic nations in particular has produced the meme 'New Atheism' and the many volumes that undergird it. In this show we discuss the derivation of the term, key players, effects on religious communities and the potential trajectory of an inflammatory vocal attack on faith. Is there anything new about atheism?

Off Topic

(What we do not intend to talk about at length.)

evidence for or against in any great detail or the topic of debate

Talking Points

The phrase refers to a resurgence (arguably) of interest around the place of religion in society and its negative influences on public thought. Possibly originally coined by Gary Wolf in an article published in Wired magazine in 2006 entitled: ‘The Church of the Non-Believers’.

‘The New Atheists will not let us off the hook simply because we are not doctrinaire believers. They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God. Religion is not only wrong; it's evil. Now that the battle has been joined, there's no excuse for shirking.’

Activism, vocalism, condemnatory, Muscular atheism

4 men and their critical works are at the core though there are many others enjoying the limelight:

Sam Harrisneuroscientist and philosopher. Book: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004)

‘It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum’

‘The problem with faith, is that it really is a conversation stopper. Faith is a declaration of immunity to the powers of conversation. It is a reason, why you do not have to give reasons, for what you believe.’

Daniel Dennett

Limitation of the mind

Causality

Christopher Hitchens

Dictatorial

Intellectual honesty, problem with the ‘atheist but..’ crowd e.g. patronising, ‘let’s not rob them of their beliefs’

Jewish Eruv, North West London Eruv site: http://nwlondoneruv.org/. This is a string which surrounds an area within which Jews can carry objects on the Sabbath owing to restrictions in the Talmud.

‘Britain's first, and biggest, eruv was created in February 2003. The eruv has a boundary 11 miles long and encloses an area of 6.5 square miles. It covers Hendon, Golders Green and Hampstead Garden Suburb, together with parts of Childs Hill, Cricklewood, East Finchley, Finchley and Mill Hill.

‘Pushing things is also forbidden - so families with small children (who would use prams and pushchairs) or the physically disabled (who would use wheelchairs) are effectively housebound. They can't even go to the synagogue to fulfil their religious duties on the Sabbath.’ - BBC

Discussion of a growing breed of liberals claiming that the new atheists are ‘just as bad’ as the fundamentalists, why that is nonsense and the irony of the possible situation where the new atheists have made their ‘cause’ even more unattainable. Or something.

Discussion of ‘the arrogance of science’

Science changes all the time

Melvyn Bragg

Western Women of all people speaking out in defence of religions that humiliate them.

Wrap Up

Next topic will be Alternative Energy, available soon!

Fade out music choice - something open source so poor quality but we won’t get sued.

‘The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.’ —Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (1995), quoted from Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (2001)

[Daniel Dennett] ‘Compatibilism (or soft determinism) is the belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent.’ —Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilism